romance

Taming the Fox

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Just released! A m/m romance with some light paranormal elements and a HEA. Available on amazon (only, for now) and in KU.

This story is special to me. I started this 10 years ago! At first, I just had a picture in my mind of these characters and their relationship. I wrote a light, smutty short about them. It was fine but I always wished I’d done a better job of it. So I unpublished and promised myself I’d revise it at some point. Which I did this past year! It took a LOT of revising, rewriting, and I will admit some tears, but I’m finally happy with this story.

What I wanted to explore with this story was how intimacy grows. The characters feel a physical attraction right away, and that continues throughout the book, but the emotional intimacy builds more slowly.

Its a very sappy romance, with explicit sex, and two very sweet, sensitive main characters. It is entirely possible no one but me will enjoy this book, but I’m hoping maybe a few readers will like it, too. If you do read it and enjoy it, please let me know. You have no idea how thrilled I would be to hear that!

Re-release, coming soon! (yay?)

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Oops, I did it again 🙂 I wrote a story that does not fit neatly into any m/m romance sub-genre. But, it is done and I’m planning to publish by September 1. This is a re-release of a previously published erotica short, only now its a full on romance novel with no kink but plenty of steam. I really love this story, and I’m happy with how it came out. I even like the cover!

But where to place it?…how to market?…how to even describe this thing???

Its a book with shifters, so you’d think “paranormal” BUT – the shifters are sweeties. Sensitive men with no typical shifter stuff. No alpha/omega dynamics (not even strict top/bottom roles), no pack politics, no physical battles or near-death dramas. Its more like a contemporary romance in terms of plot. But I know a lot of contemporary romance readers avoid any hint of magic or paranormal, and the shifter stuff is a part of the story, a little.

I’m left, as usual, with the understanding that my story just doesn’t fit. It’s a bit odd. Maybe boring to some people. Too much and not enough at the same time. But I’m going to put it out there into the world, and then keep on writing.

I’ll post again when it is live! But for now, a sneak peek of the cover:

And the blurb:

[available on Amazon Sept.1]

Centuries of interbreeding with humans has weakened shifter magic. These days, they can barely shift, only producing partial animal forms: fuzzy humans with an animal edge. Those who can manage to sprout some fur stick together in tight clans, focused on strengthening their bloodlines.

Harlan is a fox shifter who’s supposed to settle down with a vixen and make a litter of fox kits. But he longs for a male partner, and he refuses to live a lie – a stance for which his clan ostracizes him. Alone and hurt, Harlan resigns himself to a life without love, and moves into the woods where he spends his days hunting, reading, and painting in his ramshackle cabin.

Shane is a gay wolf shifter longing for a mate. He decides to move into his wealthy family’s luxurious hunting lodge…which just happens to be right next door to Harlan’s place.

When the two meet, they develop a friendship with a strong sexual attraction. But Harlan’s insecurity about his poverty, and his fear of being hurt again, keeps them from being the partners they both need.

A wolf who has everything. A fox who’s lost it all. Will they take a chance on love?

A spicy contemporary m/m Romance with two fuzzy, sweet shifters who have a bad habit of snuggling by the fire.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! The cover is different, for me. (no sexy dude.) Is this a mistake? Does the blurb sound too boring? Let me know what you think 🙂

The Raven & His Selkie

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Release day is today! I’m happy to say this book is out, and available on KU.

Available on Amazon

This is a paranormal m/m romance, and as the title suggests, the main characters are a raven & a selkie. I admit I made up the “raven” creature from various mythologies. In my story, I have Grigori (the raven) being a child of a Harpy. The Harpy legends vary a bit, so I took some artistic license in my creature-creation here. Grigori can jump/leap very high and far, but he can’t actually fly. He likes to gather information, and he’s a bit of a control freak. His Selkie, Murdoch, is much more chill.

I also play around with the idea of “fated mates” in this story. I LOVE the trope of soul mates/fated mates in paranormal romance, and I really like exploring different iterations of it. In this story, the mate-bond hits these boys hard, and it takes them a while to adjust. I hope you will enjoy their journey to happy-ever-after!

I am planning (and currently drafting) a second book in this world. It will be Drew’s story (he’s a wolf shifter) and he too will be blindsided by a fated-mate bond. Yum! However, both stories will be stand-alone, no cliffhangers I promise! I hate those 🙂

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Do you like the fated mates trope? What other romance tropes are your favorites? (I also really enjoy a good “enemies to lovers” story) Do you like new or unusual paranormal creatures, or do you prefer to stick to the more classic vampires & shifters? Leave me a comment and let me know 🙂

Cover Reveal: The Raven & His Selkie

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An m/m Paranormal Romance

Getting closer and closer to the release date of this one! Preorder is live, if you are so inclined. Also I should note I will keep this one in KU, at least for a while.

This story is about a pair of “fated mates” who have a little bit of a struggle coming to terms with the mate bond and what that means for each of them. It is possible I will write a book 2 for this world, I’ve written a little already and I’m liking it, but no promises yet. Either way, this is a standalone with a HEA.

I will definitely post more about this story and these characters as my release date (August 20) creeps closer. Stay tuned! And as always, I’d love to hear from you so feel free to leave thoughts and comments if you have them 🙂

More Than Love

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My m/m contemporary More Than Love is live!

I hope people like this story. It’s not very action packed or dramatic: it’s a quiet story of love. I know that is not as popular as other styles, but I hope maybe some people will enjoy it anyway.trustme_cover_v3

The two main characters are Dan and Ian. Dan is the point-of-view character the whole time, he’s a cop in his late 30’s who is longing for a relationship. Ian is a guy he dated in college and never forgot, and this is the story of their second chance at love.

If you are looking for a gentle love story with a happy ending, give it a try!

Thanks ❤

Bisexual Romance!

ameliabishop dear diary..., mmromance, romance ,

It exists ❤

So here’s a story: I was scrolling facebook and I saw a post on queer sci-fi asking “what topics would you like to see discussed?” and I answered “Bisexual romance” (actually I wrote a bit more than that, basically outlining my concerns over including bisexual characters in a meaningful way, and increasing bi-representation in fiction.)

So then the other day I’m scrolling facebook again and I see that my topic idea got picked! Cool! There was a nice discussion on the queer sci-fi FB page (I thought so anyway) and I was pretty happy to see such a lot of participation on a topic that is so important to me. Nice.

Then someone made a blog post of their own about it (well maybe more than one person but only one I saw) and their post sparked some more heated discussion, and was taken down. I missed the drama of it all (thank the gods) but I would like to add a little bit. Not because I want to make drama (this won’t be dramatic don’t worry lol) but just because I think the problem is worth consideration, and is important enough that it should be talked about and not just brushed aside to keep things copacetic.

My original question was poorly worded (hey it was a facebook comment give me a break!) but my essential question was: what level of representation in a story is “enough” to label it a bisexual romance?

And the author of the drama-inducing blog post touched on this, as well. It is a real problem, and I think they actually pointed out the root of the issue: When we label romance, we do so based on the genders of the main couple, not their orientations. This is a problem, obviously, and leads to massive bi-erasure. So yes there are prejudices against bisexuals, lots of harmful stereotypes, and even outright disdain for bi’s in romance and, well, everywhere. But I don’t think that is the whole problem. In Romance, we also have an issue with marketing, labeling, and even just talking about bisexuality.

One point that blogger made was bisexual romance is a label used primarily for menage. I’m sure that was a hurtful statement for many. Unfortunately, it’s true. The bisexual romance shelf on amazon is pretty much a selection of mmf menage stories. And hey, I love bisexual menage stories (I’ve written some! *shameless plug* Buy my mmf!!) but mmf is hardly the typical bisexual love story, let’s be honest.

Here’s the thing: there are LOTS of bisexual characters in m/m Romance. Lots. Want to find one? Good luck! Because there really isn’t a way to search for them.

Imagine if there was just one LGBT Romance category on Amazon. And when you brought up a search for “gay romance” you automatically got bisexual, trans, gay, and lesbian titles all mixed in with no filtering. Good? Maybe for some, not for others. Well, when you search up “bisexual romance” you get a lot of menage, maybe a few m/m stories where the author tagged it bisexual, and that’s it. All mixed in, and many of the m/m books with bisexual characters are not there at all. When you search for “gay” or “lesbian” you get lots of bisexual in there, with no way to tell which is which. Sometimes, it’s not even clear in the blurb. And readers will call bisexual characters “gay” as well. Rarely is the word “bisexual” even mentioned.

There ARE bisexual characters in m/m. I’ve written them, I’ve read them, they’re totally there I promise you. For an example, Cut and Run’s Ty and Zane are bisexual (right?) and they’re pretty popular with readers. Yet those books are not listed in “bisexual romance” on amazon. Why? Because the main pairing is two males. So it’s m/m. But…m/m does not always mean “gay.”

Yet amazon (like most vendors) does not have an m/m category. You’ve got to pick an orientation. (Did you just cringe a little? Yep, me too.) Do you pick bisexual, and get your monogamous m/m thrown in with menage and thereby miss reaching the majority of your readership? Or pick gay and erase your bisexual characters? (I usually pick both, but to be honest it’s the “gay” list I’m trying to rank on, as it is the bigger market.)

Representation matters. But so does getting our books to the readers who want them. (bisexual romance authors gotta eat, too)

I’m not sure what the solution to this is. How can we spotlight our bisexual characters and still appeal to our readers? How can we change such a big thing as amazon’s categories? How can we openly recognize bisexual characters in romance? I wish I had more answers. As always, I’m open to ideas 🙂

 

Breaking up (in Romance)

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I had a guest post on the Quill Writer’s site today, and I forgot to re-blog it! Better late than never, I guess 🙂 broken_heart

Here is me talking about using break-ups in Romance: http://quill.thebookrebel.com/2015/11/07/breaking-up-is-easy-to-do/